Another surgical training company adopts the Microsoft HoloLens (video)

We posted recently about Touch Surgery raising $20 million to create a training solution for surgeons using the Microsoft HoloLens.

Now another company has revealed their own solution and has already tried it out for real in actual surgery.

Surgical training company Revinax already has VR products available, but using the Microsoft HoloLens they are able to deliver demonstrations to training surgeons right in the middle of the surgical procedure, recorded earlier from the same point of view by tutors. The HoloLens also delivers access to CT scans and 3D reconstructions of the area the surgeon is operating on.

“This is the perfect tool for any surgery. As a teaching surgeon, I can create my own tutorials to deliver them to students before and, now also, during surgery. They can use the tutorial as a reminder during the operation,” said Dr Nicolas LONJON, neurosurgeon and teacher at the Montpellier University Hospital. “The patient imagery and planning feature also avoid unnecessary distractions: we now no longer need to check these data on the computer during the operation.”

The team used the system in an actual procedure on the 7th November 2017 during a standard spinal osteosynthesis procedure at the University Hospital of Montpellier in France.

The Revinax team notes that during training demonstrations for students, only the performing surgeon has a clear view of the operating site. Students watch everything from a certain distance, which implies that they don’t see the operation from the same perspective and with the same precision as the surgeon. As a consequence, high-precision, minute gestures may be missed, which may negatively impact training outcome. Mixed Reality provide new opportunities to efficiently train surgeons by giving them a direct view of the operating site. Students can now observe the entire procedure from the perspective of the performing surgeon.  It also offers the possibility of training students in areas geographically distant from tutors, something which has been virtually impossible in the past.

See the system in action in their video below.

Read more about their products at their website here.